Adopting a Mindset Toward Growth

Many times, the first step in change is adopting a change in your mindset. Adopting a growth mindset is a change that you can make to improve in how you think of events going on within your life and, specifically, changes you are trying to make. Having a mindset toward growth is the near opposite of being a perfectionist. Perfectionism may sound like a beneficial mindset in theory, but it often becomes a damaging enemy to growth and change within our lives. Rather than seeking perfection in facets of our life, and then being disappointed when we inevitably come up short, we can choose to adopt a mindset toward growth. Instead of saying “What did I do wrong?” and beating ourselves up while reflecting on a situation, a change to the growth mindset will mean asking ourselves “What did I do well? Where can I continue to build and improve?”. Allowing yourself to explore a mindset of growth helps to keep your focus on positive aspects of the things going on in your life, rather than being drawn to shortcomings and imperfections. 

To begin to improve your ability to do this, try to think of something that you have improved in recently (It’s okay if this is very difficult, even searching for a small improvement that you’ve created is beneficial). Next, take some time to reflect on the benefits of this improvement - Has it helped you to deal with emotions better? Manage stress better? Improve relationships? Get better sleep? - Try to think of as many benefits of this improvement as possible. Finally, begin to think about ways that you could build off of this improvement even further and keep the growth momentum going for yourself! The trick is beginning to challenge your mindset when it slips into perfectionistic thoughts. Try to turn those perfectionistic thoughts around and reflect on how you might have grown and improved from the situation.

-Caleb Simon, LCMFT